[net] A Rising Facebook Meme Lifts All Cartoon Character Blogs

2545.

Any uptick in hits on my blog has been a cause for private celebration. Since I haven’t yet figured out how to incite the national love affair with me I so richly deserve, it’s been a bit like trying to induce lightning to strike – and happens about as often (there’s a corollary to Murphy’s Law which I’ve codified that essentially states that while it is true that if anything can go wrong it will go wrong at the most inopportune moment, it most certainly will not come when you actively attempt to induce it (but you won’t keep it away permanently by inviting it)).

So, when it happens, it’s a treat … but the real triumph comes in finding out why.

For the last two or three days, I’ve been notching around two-three hundred hits a day, a welcome influx. I’ve deduced why. Apparently there’s a Facebook meme in full effect, where everyone is replacing their profile pic with their favorite cartoon character. In as much as I am my own favorite cartoon character, I resisted the bandwagon for a while, then, realizing that I did quite adore Speed Racer (who had to duke it out with Tintin), I changed my Facebook avatar for a little bit to the illustration you see left.

After this I found out that this has something to do with an online awareness campaign about child abuse. Being against child abuse, I didn’t really have a problem with that, though one would want to do something a little more material, I’d think.

But the real reason I did it was to marvel at the connectedness of things these days, and that the virtual sphere is just as chaotic in its way as the real. You see, the endless searches for “cartoon character” is pinging this off-the-cuff article like mad.

Traffic is still fun, though. So I’ll just enjoy it and hope people stop by to read the rest.